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Video and quotes: Eric Pinkins

As noted earlier, Eric Pinkins spent Sunday playing safety, primarily free safety, after spending the first two days at cornerback.

Here’s some of what he had to say about that, and other topics, in the attached video, with some quotes below:

[do action=”brightcove-video” videoid=”3574409729001″/]

(On playing safety today…) “Yes sir, I was. They just wanted me to be versatile and learn different positions because you never know where I’m going to play. But I’m playing behind All-Pro guys, so basically I’m just going to learn from the Legion of Boom. My bread and butter is special teams and then I’m going to earn my way onto the defense eventually.”

(On playing cornerback the first couple days…) “It was definitely an adjustment period but I loved it. I really did.”

(On the biggest change playing corner instead of safety…) “As far as being out on an island, you have more space to cover. And then the technique because every college and every NFL team has different technique so I just have to be very meticulous on that.”

(On what different things is he being asked to do in coverage…) “Well, primarily, the defense is bump and run coverage and then we have to kick our feet out and lock out. So basically just little stuff like that that I have to work on my craft on.”

(On what his first thoughts were when they talked to him about playing corner…) “Man, I loved it. My first thoughts were I’m going to learn from the best of the best – the Legion of Boom. So I was really excited when they told me that.”

(On if he’s had a chance to meet the Legion of Boom…) “No, no I haven’t gotten a chance to meet them but I’m really excited to meet them.”

(On how much experience he has playing cornerback…) “I played corner in high school.”

(On being the first guy from his high school to be drafted…)“It’s very important. I’m glad I could represent Inderkum High School the right way and the city of Sacramento.”

(On what the past week has been like since being drafted…) “It’s been a long road because as you know, I was finishing up finals too. So my primary focus was getting that degree. After I got that degree, I just locked into football and ready to go to work.”

(On how difficult it was having to study for finals with the NFL waiting for him up in Seattle…) “Well pretty much everybody is student athletes, so you have to be able to decipher the two. You’ve got to be able to do school and play sports. That’s the reason why they have you in college, because they believe that you can do that, so I was able to do that.”

(On if other teams talked to him about playing corner during the draft process or if Seattle was the only team…) “No, the Dolphins, too. They wanted me to play either corner or safety.”

(On his first thought when he heard Seattle wanted him to play corner instead of safety…) “Honestly, I’m an athlete so I’ll play wherever they want me to play.”

(On if he’s had a welcome to the NFL moment yet…) “No, not yet. I’m sure I’ll get a welcome to the NFL moment when we get the pads on, going against Marshawn Lynch or somebody like that.”

(On getting to finish the weekend minicamp with a little scrimmage situation…) “Man, I just love the game of football and we actually got to scrimmage today. It actually felt like a real game, you know. I was on the blue team and we lost but the main philosophy of this program is to compete and that’s what we were doing.”

(On if he did some scouting on the Seahawks once he found out he was drafted to come play here…) “Oh, yes sir. As soon as I got drafted by them, I immediately went to YouTube to look at the Legion of Boom and then just get a primary idea of what they run. They do a lot of bump and run and a lot of deep thirds so I was very excited about that and to be a part of that.”

(On if that’s a shift from what he’s used to at San Diego State…) “Yes sir, because I played the warrior position and the warrior position, we guard the slot receiver and sometimes we line up in the box. It just depends on the call and the formation. Sometimes you’re blitzing off the edge because we run a 3-3-5 defense and the primary disguise in that defense is to put pressure on the quarterback so it puts the DBs in the best position to make plays.”